Occasional commentary, musings and insight in more than 140 characters.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

How government can help small businesses

Neil Blumenthal is one of the founders of Warby Parker, an online eyewear company that sells designer frames for less than $100. He was among 150 young chief executives invited to Washington by Our Time, a youth advocacy group, to help start Buy Young, an initiative that encourages consumers to support companies owned by members of the millennial generation. Below is a particularly cogent insight from the conversation published in the NY Times:

Q. What could Washington do to help?

A. The first is streamlining regulation. The rules of optical dispensing vary from state to state. Dispensing eyeglasses is not that complicated and even if it were complicated, there should be uniform rules. I’d also do something about the dearth of technical talent — it is really difficult to hire Web developers and engineers. We aren’t educating enough of these people. It was refreshing to hear the politicians talk about the STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — subjects, but come on, let’s get some of the smart engineers into the country by granting them their H-1B visas.